Breakthrough Series
Refurbished laptops and mentorship for underserved young people aged 18 to 35, with their progress recorded over the following months.
Digital exclusion compounds. Without a device a young person cannot build digital skills. Without the skills they cannot reach income. Without income they cannot afford the device. The Breakthrough Series exists to break that loop at the point where it is cheapest to break: the machine itself.
A laptop on its own is rarely enough, so each one is paired with structured mentorship from industry professionals, freelancers, and digital career coaches. Recipients are found through social media campaigns, school partnerships, and referrals from youth organisations, and selection prioritises underserved youth, women in technology, and unemployed graduates.
Then the team follows up. Recipients are surveyed and called at three and six months to record what they have built, learned, or earned, and their account of it is filmed and edited into a short documentary and social cuts.
What the programme is for
What the programme sets out to achieve.
Put devices in hands
Provide functional refurbished laptops and tablets to underserved youth, each assessed for functionality and quality before it is distributed.
Reduce digital inequality
Move recipients into active use of digital tools for learning or income generation, tracked rather than assumed.
Connect to mentorship
Link every recipient to industry professionals, freelancers, and digital career coaches for real-world guidance and network access.
Document the journey
Produce short storytelling films following recipients from selection to early outcomes, for programme communications and advocacy.
Targets
Figures the programme is working towards. These are planned, not delivered.
10
Refurbished devices to underserved youth aged 18 to 35, within 12 months
75%
Of recipients actively using devices for learning or income
100%
Of recipients in at least one structured mentorship interaction
How it runs
The activities that make up the programme.
Identification and selection
Prospective recipients mapped through social media campaigns, school partnerships, and youth organisation referrals, then selected through a transparent process.
Orientation
An inception session formally welcomes recipients into the programme and sets expectations on both sides.
Device assessment and handover
Each laptop is assessed and prepared before distribution, and the handover is tracked through distribution records.
Mentorship and follow-up
Structured mentorship sessions, then follow-up surveys and check-in calls at three and six months.
Storytelling
A baseline profile, handover footage, progress check-ins, and a final interview, edited into a documentary and short-form cuts.
From the field
Laptop handovers, mentoring sessions, and recipients getting started on the laptops they were given.
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Hear from a beneficiary
A Breakthrough Series recipient, on camera in the training room with the laptop.
Who it is for
Primary
- Underserved youth aged 18 to 35
- Aspiring freelancers, digital creators, and early-stage tech enthusiasts from low-income communities
Secondary
- Families benefiting from improved household income
- SMEs and employers gaining access to skilled youth talent
Every programme runs on donated hardware.
If your organisation is retiring devices, that is where a programme starts.